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State has until Nov. 28 to certify circuit clerk race

Although election results for the circuit clerk race were certified on Friday, who will be holding the post is still subject to change.

Patrick Craddock was the official winner as of Friday, according to Probate Judge Gloria Sinclair.

“It still looks like Patrick Craddock (is the winner),” Sinclair said. “Craddock still didn’t have the one half of one percent (after provisional ballots), so unless the recount is waived, we have to do a recount.”

As of Monday afternoon, Sinclair said that Craddock had 7,529 votes to Adams’ 7,484 – 45 votes, or about one fourth of 1 percent, separated the two candidates.

Since circuit clerk is a state position, the election results also have to be certified at the state level. Sinclair said the deadline to have results certified by the state is Nov. 28. The county will then have 72 hours from the time that the state certifies the results to perform a recount.

As mentioned earlier, a provision of state law requires the county to hold a recount if one candidate wins by less than one half of 1 percent. The losing candidate reserves the right to prevent the recount from occurring, but Adams said he is still planning on letting the recount go through as planned.

“All I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope,” Adams said. “There is always a chance mistakes could have been made (counting votes), or the (recount) provision wouldn’t be in there.”